EURO 2024
England’s soccer fortunes add sporting drama to UK election
Does British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak risk scoring an own goal by calling an election during the 2024 European Championship soccer tournament in July?Sunak, himself a soccer fan, might be hoping for a boost to his struggling campaign if England do well, although whether there really is a link between sport and elections is disputed by experts.
Given the national team’s habit of morale-busting defeats in major tournaments, the chance of another hit to the English psyche appears just as likely a backdrop to the election.
On a positive note, however, England, runners-up three years ago, are among the favourites under manager Gareth Southgate with a team full of in-form attacking players including Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka.
Sunak unexpectedly called a national election for July 4 when the European Championship in Germany will be entering its most exciting phase.
Voters will head to the polls four or five days after England’s first knockout match, assuming the team avoid the embarrassment of elimination in the group stage.
There is also a chance England will have been pitted against their hosts and old rivals Germany in that last-16 game, a prospect that will fill many fans with dread.
Scotland are competing in the tournament too, potentially offering relief to the ruling Scottish National Party which, like Sunak’s Conservatives, is floundering in opinion polls.
Political pundits have offered non-sporting explanations for Sunak’s decision to call an early election, including a fall in Britain’s once double-digit inflation to close to 2% and signs that his flagship plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda might not get off the ground.
The timing has raised eyebrows, however, for the unusual overlap of an election campaign with the summer sporting calendar.
That has raised memories of one of the most painful of England’s defeats.
In June 1970, a 3-2 loss to West Germany in a World Cup quarter-final was followed four days later by a shock election defeat for incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson, triggering debate about the impact of the match.
LINK OR NO LINK?
Much has been written since about a possible link between sport and elections.
A 2010 paper by academics at Stanford and Loyola Marymount University in the United States said wins for local college American football teams earned political incumbents an extra 1.61 percentage points of support in subsequent Senate, gubernatorial and presidential elections.
Others have found no clear connection.
Stefan Mueller and Liam Kneafsey, at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, mapped Irish election outcomes over decades with Gaelic football and hurling match results and found no correlation with support for incumbents or ruling party politicians.
Kneafsey said there were signs that some kind of influence on voters did occur.
“Whether they actually switch their votes, that’s probably a higher bar to clear and certainly the results there are inconclusive,” he said.
While that debate continues, it is clear that politics do weigh on the minds of soccer fans.
At a Euro 2016 match, three days after Britain’s shock Brexit referendum decision, many England fans joined in a crude chant directed at the European Union which ended with the words: “We all voted out”. England were beaten 2-1 by underdogs Iceland and were knocked out of the competition.
Another risk for Sunak is that sports fans resent his scheduling of the election at a time when not only Euro 2024 is taking place – from June 14-July 14 – but also the Wimbledon tennis championships which run from July 1-14.
Campaigning will also overlap with cricket’s T20 World Cup involving England and Scotland from June 2-29.
Some academics will be happy, however, as they will be able to do more research into the links between sport and voting patterns.
“We could actually do with politicians having more elections during this time to definitively test this,” Kneafsey said.
-Reuters
At 38 years and 289 days, Croatia’s Luka Modric has become the oldest player to score in the history of the European Championship when he scored in the 55th minute in the last Euro 2024 Group B match with Italy.
He did that just after missing a penalty kick in the 54th minute of the match played in Leipzig.
However, his heroic performance was not enough for Croatia as a goal, deep in the added time salvaged the game for Italy who tied the scores at 1-1 and advanced to the knockout stage.
Hitherto, games played on 24th June had not been favourable for Italy since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said the referee made a mistake in ruling out a goal for his side against France at the European Championship on Friday but added that both sides were happy with a point in their 0-0 Group D draw.
A second half strike from Xavi Simons was chalked off because Denzel Dumfries, standing offside next to goalkeeper Mike Maignan, was penalised with the decision eventually confirmed by VAR after a lengthy delay.
But Koeman said he has looked at images of the incident afterwards and strongly disagreed with English referee Anthony Taylor.
“The position of Dumfries is offside, that’s true. But he isn’t disturbing the goalkeeper. And when that does not happen then it’s a legal goal in my opinion,” the Dutch coach told a post-match press conference.
“Did they need five minutes to check it because it’s so difficult? I don’t understand this. He’s not disturbing the goalkeeper,” added Koeman.
But the goalless stalemate was a satisfactory outcome for both sides, he said.
The game fizzled out into a tepid ending, ensuring the two sides reached four points and will almost surely go through to the knockout stage
“Although I think that the goal should have stood, my takeaway from this is it is a fair result.
“I can accept this, although there were times during the game where we weren’t up to scratch and that’s probably due to the fact that we were up against a great opponent in France.
“But we have four points from two games and played against the big favourites. I would have signed up for that beforehand. I’m happy, I don’t know about you,” he asked reporters.
“Maybe you’ll say the Dutch were boring and defensive, and that is allowed. But I had the feeling France were happy to leave the field with a point too.”
Simons said there was no point arguing about the goal decision. “The VAR makes the decision, ultimately you can’t do anything about it,” the 21-year-old said.
“I can say something, but it won’t change anything. It’s the referee’s choice, we have to move on.”
He too seemed satisfied with the point.
“The most important thing was to give a good performance. We knew France’s qualities and of course we wanted to win, but we took a point,” Simons added.
-Reuters
France captain Kylian Mbappe should be available for their second European Championship group game against the Netherlands after breaking his nose in their opening 1-0 win over Austria, manager Didier Deschamps said on Thursday.
The striker was injured in a collision with Austria’s Kevin Danso, and the 25-year-old forward took to social media to ask for help in finding a protective mask so he could face the Dutch in Group D on Friday.
“Everything is going in the right direction after this major shock he had, with the consequences, of course,” Deschamps told reporters.
“Yesterday, as you could see, he was able to go out and do some activity. That will be the case tonight too.
“So it has evolved in the right direction to ensure that he can be available tomorrow.”
Mbappe tried on the specially made mask on Thursday.
“Kylian Mbappe will be wearing a mask yes, you don’t really need to know the details about this mask,” Deschamps said.
“I think you’ve got enough moles to find out where these masks come from anyway.”
The French are willing to leave it as late as possible before deciding on whether Mbappe will start, just four days after his injury.
“Kylian is doing well. The swelling has come down on his nose,” France forward Antoine Griezmann said.
“We’ll see the last minute, depending on how he’s feeling.
If Mbappe is unable to play, Griezmann is confident the French side can cope with his absence.
“I think the entire team would have to adapt. I really don’t know if he’s going to be playing. Having one of the best players in the world on the pitch or not definitely changes things,” he said.
“But you always have to adapt to each match. And that’s what I really love to do. So it doesn’t matter what the technical choices are for tomorrow.”
For Deschamps, whether Mbappe plays or not does not change the way he approaches the game.
“I try to talk to the players who are going to start the game, and the players who are not going to start the game,” Deschamps said.
“We are a group. You need to manage the group. It was the same with the first match, the players who will start and those who will be on the bench.
“Everyone has to be ready. I don’t think it’s anything special.”
The Netherlands also won their opening game, coming from behind to beat Poland 2-1.
-Reuters
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